A Look Ahead at 2018

With the holiday season firmly in the rearview mirror, we segue forward into a new year of unpredictable opportunities and possibilities. While LightEdge is ready to tackle the unknown, there are a few things we know will remain constant. Since the best predictor of future behavior is past performance, we’ll take what we’ve learned and identify a few activities and trends we see for 2018.

Community Involvement:

One of LightEdge’s main priorities as a company is staying heavily involved in our Midwest market communities. In 2018 LightEdge will remain active members of 22 different organizations across our three primary markets in Iowa, Nebraska, and Greater Kansas City.
While LightEdge continues to be financially invested, our employees value active participation in the community. As a result, we plan to volunteer in programs across the Midwest, keeping with a special emphasis on charities benefiting children and their families. As LightEdge starts to grow larger in the Omaha, NE market, our team plans to seek out new volunteer opportunities to give back within that community.

Upcoming Events:

LightEdge is excited to host and sponsor even more webinars, trade shows, and events in the coming year. Here are just a couple to keep your eye out for over the next few months.Omaha Data Center Grand Opening: In the Spring of 2018, LightEdge plans to welcome the community and our customers to come celebrate the opening of our brand new Omaha data center over food, drinks, and music. Tours of the newly retrofitted data center will be available throughout the event.IBM i Cloud Webinar: Join us on February 8th for LightEdge’s IBM i Power Cloud webinar. Hear from experts in IBM AS/400, i Series, System i as they answer all your IBM i Cloud questions, and explain what CIOs should know to make this environment the most efficient and effective going into 2018 and beyond.

Cloud and Colocation Trends for 2018:

• Forecast calls for clouds – As businesses rapidly shift to the cloud, there will be larger percentages and differentiations between workloads. This will result in a more targeted cloud selection. Workloads are being classified and deployed to the most appropriate environments and hybrid clouds, as opposed to strictly public or private. Software as a Service (SaaS) has also opened doors for many businesses. A Cisco survey forecasts that SaaS will account for 60 percent of all cloud-based workloads – a 12 percent increase over 2017 projections.
• It’s all connected – Cloud environments are developing in large part due to the insights of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. IDC predicts by 2021, 40 percent of digital transformation initiatives will use AI services and 75 percent of commercial enterprise apps will use AI. To analyze this data and make faster decisions, workloads need to move seamlessly between platforms. This will require infrastructure oversight so that cloud storage is not merely implemented, but implemented effectively and efficiently. Colocation providers that support hybrid cloud strategies with connections to major cloud providers will continue to be in demand, as they help fill that oversight role and make sure that the bridge to the cloud is safe and secure.
With any uncertainties that a new year may bring, LightEdge looks forward to providing our customers and partners with solid, reliable service in 2018. We hope these predictions of performance and trends proved helpful, and we look forward to another extremely successful year.

Start Your Complimentary Discovery Call

Let’s explore your needs and identify the most effective way to meet them.

Our highly-trained compliance and security experts are ready to work with you to create the right combination of products and services to meet your needs. There’s no obligation to get started. Just fill out our contact form, or give us a call at 877-771-3343!